ELECTION 2013: Eight vie for four spots on Wissahickon School Board

WISSAHICKON — Four seats are up for election on the Wissahickon School Board this year and eight registered candidates say they have what it takes to continue to move the district forward.

Current board members Marjorie Brown and Barbara Moyer each decided not to run again for another term.

The primary election May 21 sees candidates from both sides of the aisle vying for the open positions on the board, each bringing their own unique expertise to the job.

On the Republican side, board President Young K. Park and board member Dick Stanton are each fighting to keep their positions on the board, while newcomers Joe Honeycutt and Mary Anne Noon are hoping to fill the seats left by Brown and Moyer.

For Young Park, 49, an attorney out of Whitpain Township, he said his record speaks for itself.

He cited a number of reports from such sources as the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Reports that show the district ranks as one of the best in the state and said he’d like to continue the progress that’s been made into the future.

“Our school district is the least taxed district in Montgomery County for the past 10 years, and our school tax rate is the lowest in the county as well,” he said. “Our district enjoys S&P’s bond rating of AAA, which is better than the federal government. At the end of this year, our debt obligation will be reduced to about $100,000 per year from about $6 million per year just two years ago. We have a fund balance that is the envy of the other school districts.”

A board member for 14 years and the board president for the last four, he said he as a proven record.

Park said the four main priorities he’d like to address if re-elected are student achievement, addressing the achievement gap, long-term financial planning and a low tax burden on residents.

He said student achievement has been the most important goal for the board and it has increased in recent years. He said the achievement gap is a failure of both parents and the district and needs to be fixed.

For long-term financial planning, Park said the district’s financial stability is the envy of many of it’s neighbors. He said cutting wasteful spending, finding ways to save and developing a long-term financial plan lead to the district being the least taxed in the county.

Finally, he acknowledged many seniors living on a fixed income can’t afford a tax increase and said over the past 14 years, he’s voted to increase taxes once.

“I am proud of what our school board has accomplished, especially the past four years,” he said. “I would like to continue the progress we have made well into the future. I would like to provide equal opportunity for all of our students to succeed, and in order to accomplish it, we have to continue with our innovative teaching methods and maintain our strong financial stability.”

For Lower Gwynedd resident Dick Stanton, 47, continuing to bring cutting-edge learning initiatives into the classroom and addressing the district’s facilities issues are his primary reasons for seeking re-election.

“During my eight years on the board, we’ve done some really exciting things to improve the learning environment, including the smart boards and laptops that I fought so hard to get, and now we’re facing some major facilities decisions (I chair that committee),” he said. “I’d like to see these initiatives through to completion, and make sure we make the right decisions with respect to our buildings.”

The senior vice president of Cresa Partners, which does strategic real estate consulting, and manager of Long & Foster Philadelphia Region Commercial Team, Stanton said his original platform for running for school board was to get “more bang for our buck.”

“Using my business background (former manager for Arthur Andersen and former consultant for IBM), we’ve been able to identify ways to successfully introduce technology, something that simply wasn’t happening here before,” he said. “We haven’t cut a single working educational program — we’ve just managed the money better to free it up for education, and I’m proud to say I’ve had a lot to do with that.”

He added that no one else on the board or running in the election has any construction experience besides him, which will be needed in the foreseeable future.

Stanton said his five main priorities for the board if re-elected are saving money on the business end of the district to use toward education, ensuring a thorough cost-benefit analysis weighing educational factors and financial considerations for upcoming decisions regarding a potential new high school and on other buildings, making sure any construction that may take place is done as economically as possible, continuing to advocate and support 21st century learning techniques that will help Wissahickon to be among the leading districts in the area and keeping taxes the lowest in the county.

“A diverse board has many role players based on their skills,” he said. “My roles are to keep us on the right course with the buildings, with technology that supports the educational strategic plan for the district, and saving money on business items to leave more available for educational spending.”

Joe Honeycutt, 46, of Ambler Borough, said he decided to run because he believes he “can try to influence decisions that will have a positive impact on our children, create an environment of open collaboration, deliberation and conversation when it comes to interactions with the community and maintain sound fiscal policy which continues to appropriately manage our district’s tax dollars.”

Honeycutt said he is a 13-year employee of GlaxoSmithKline in the enterprise field division. Before that, he worked as a sales manager at Pepsi and an account manager at Michelin North America. Prior to that, Honeycutt served in the Navy as an aviation anti-submarine warfare operator/instructor.

“My professional experiences tend toward the areas of analytics, strategic planning, operations, business development and training,” he said. “I have a BS in business from The University of the State of New York and an MBA from Pepperdine University.”

Honeycutt said there are four top priorities he’d like to address if elected. The first is to “nurture an atmosphere of transparency, collaboration and open dialogue” between the board and outside the board with the administration and families. Secondly, he said he’d like to “appropriate budgetary oversight to include the approval of teacher and support staff contracts as well as appropriate long-term capital investment planning and considerations.” He said he’d also like to “review and ensure the programs and processes designed to assist special needs students (including both gifted and low performing) match the needs of Wissahickon students and at minimum achieve parity with high performance schools.” Finally, he said he’d like to enact a “comprehensive review of the administration’s plan to improve Wissahickon student achievement at all levels. This review would include the short-term and long-term plans for comprehensive integration of redistricted elementary families and students.”

“ firm believer in the role of school board as an oversight body for the administration,” he said. “As a school board member I would want to thoroughly understand why proposals are being made and to receive timely and relevant information when being asked to decide on an issue. I consider the administration and the board as a service provider and believe it’s incumbent that the board hold the administration and itself accountable to the mission of education and the interactions with staff, students, parents and the community at large.”

Mary Anne Noon, 65, of Lower Gwynedd, said while she has “no horse in the race,” she’s running for school board to make sure district students receive the best education.

Noon, who has a background in marketing, said she’s lived in the area since the mid ‘90s and has a great sense of pride and commitment to her community.

“As a business person in Montgomery County, I feel the need to bring business experience to the school board,” she said. “It is good to have lawyers, teachers and parents but this is also a business that needs to be run as such. Bringing an outside perspective to the board is a very good thing.”

Noon said she has board experience as president and chairwoman of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association, as secretary and member of the vestry at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Maple Glen, as a Deaconess House scholarship fund board member and on a capital campaign cabinet for the Laurel House.

She said her experience in marketing and sales have helped grow businesses in the past.

“In any board position I have been in, I was charged with the good of the cause,” she said. “Many millions of dollars have been in my, and the rest of the team’s, charge and have been handled judiciously. Almost all of the board experience was in relation to one form or another of education and scholarship. In those races, as a marketer, I have had to sift through the rhetoric and get to the meat of the topic. I can see through spin and hone in on the important issues. I also am there to do the legwork.”

Noon said her top priority if elected is to make sure students are receiving the best education possible. She said she wants to learn what can be done to improve school buildings, including the condition of the high school, and how best to proceed.

Other areas she said she’d like to address would be protecting taxpayers and completing contracts in a “realistic manner.”

On the Democratic side, candidates Ron Stoloff, Sherri Becker, Tracie Walsh and Norma Nicolo are all vying for a spot on the board in the fall.

Ron Stoloff, 67, of Blue Bell, is a retired Philadelphia school teacher who taught social studies for 35 years. He has a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and a master’s degree from Beaver College (now Arcadia University).

Stoloff said he’s running for the board because he’s lived in the area for 19 years and wants the school district to be great and doesn’t want a board that will waste taxpayer dollars.

“These are critical times for our district as we are finally moving out of debt and discussion is beginning on rebuilding our high school and middle school — costs that potentially will burden us for decades to come,” he said. “This decision must be made carefully so we don’t miss any opportunities this decision presents us.”

Stoloff said he is qualified to be a board member because he has spent his life in education.

“I taught in Philadelphia for 35 years in two of the more challenging high schools,” he said. “I realized that my students were not performing up to their potential and because of this became involved in many educational reform plans. It was often easy to see that what some ‘reformers’ touted as the ‘answer’ was not going to do the job and that the school would be spending thousands of dollars of scarce resources for nothing. While not all of the programs I took part in succeeded, virtually all of the ones I rejected failed. Was this some uncanny prescience on my part? No. It was experience.”

He said he will bring experience from the school and classroom to the board room.

“I am the only candidate who has ever taught,” he said. “We need someone who knows what’s going on in a classroom on our school board and I am that person. I don’t advocate that all the board members be teachers any more than they should all be business people or accountants. But someone needs to be able to shed a bit of light on how a classroom works.”

His top priorities if elected, he said, would be fiscal responsibility, school safety, bringing schools into the 21st century, quality education for students and closing the achievement gap.

Norma Nicolo, 56, of Whitpain Township, said she is running for school board because she feels “an obligation to advocate for our children.”

Nicolo said she and her husband moved to the area 10 years ago and had two children transfer into the district who then went on to “competitive” colleges and successful adult careers.

The owner of an interior design services company said she believed public schools that are well positioned to provide high quality learning to students, provide the support needed for students to become contributing members of society.

Nicolo said she feels she’s the right candidate for school board because “as a business owner, I have the skills to research and assess information, communicate my findings and develop solutions.”

She said working in business has given her the foundation to handle economic issues such as finding new opportunities and savings, and it has allowed her to fully develop skills to effectively listen to and provide for a client’s needs.

“This allows me to create a finished project that is pleasing to them and meets their expectations,” she said. “I believe the art of listening is more important than the art of speaking well. In my opinion the behavior of the school board reflects their value and respect of the community. I will work to foster a positive climate for discussion between the board members, administration, teachers and community members.”

Her top priorities, she said, are already issues the district is currently facing. She said the district’s financial health, the debate over a new high school, the ongoing contract negotiations between the district and the teachers and support staff unions and closing the student achievement gap.

“These are complex decisions that have to be thoughtfully considered in the context of how they will affect our children and our community today and in the future,” she said.

She pledged to create a more transparent board that communicates with both the community and the administration.

“I strongly believe this is a watershed moment for the Wissahickon School District,” she said. “As economic times have changed and the education of children has evolved, we must position our schools for the future and be ready to boost our children into the 21st century.”

Sherri Becker, 52, of Lower Gwynedd, said running for school board is a chance to give back to the community and the district that helped her own children find success.

Becker said she has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University and a master’s degree in business from the University of Rhode Island. Currently, she is seeking a doctorate in nursing, she said. Her clinical practice is in the school setting, she said, and she has past experience in critical care, home care, management and quality improvement.

“My professional background as a clinical nurse and manager has sharply honed my skills in listening, synthesizing information, assessment and communication,” she said. “As a school board member, I will use these skills to listen attentively to all stakeholders.”

Becker said it is her goal to “foster a culture of understanding between the school board and the community at large.”

She said over the past 20 years she has been actively involved in the Wissahickon community.

“Activities include room parent, classroom tutor, committee chair, and WMS PTO co-president,” she said. “For the past eight years, I have dedicated my time to the Wissahickon Educational Opportunities Foundation serving as board member and co-president. During my tenure on this board, the educational foundation raised in excess of $100,000 for special projects that directly benefited students.”

She said her main priority, if elected, is to “support programming and curriculum that enriches, challenges and nurtures each child.”

“Currently, data results from standardized testing serve to guide curriculum and programming,” she said. “As we measure this data, it is important not to lose sight of those magical opportunities that help our kids develop strong self-esteems and discover their passions.

“A second priority is to critically oversee a complex system that uses almost $90 million in taxpayer funds. This requires asking the hard questions, making difficult choices and demanding accountability. My third priority is to serve as a diligent supportive team member. It is important to respect the many perspectives out there. Remembering in the end, we all want what is best for our kids and our community.”

Tracie Walsh did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.